The Story Of The Little Foxes And A Trip To Town

Several weeks ago I saw a big fox running right underneath our kitchen window. It turned out it was mother Fox being busy with finding food for her kids. At the time we neither knew that she was a mother nor where she had her den. But neighbours had seen the mother fox and possibly the father too in a decrepit barn down the road from us. The barn was just a ruin as a tree had fallen across the roof during the last winter.   About 10 days ago we heard shots from the woods bordering our property. Shortly after, Bea came back from meeting a neighbour and told me that someone had shot the parents of the little foxes. We just couldn’t believe that someone would do such a horrible thing. We still don’t know who the shooter was, but we saw two little foxes looking quite forlorn into this harsh world.   Meanwhile there are at least 2 people feeding the fox babies with hamburger and cut-up sausages. They have adjusted and every evening they are sitting and playing around the old barn. We feel so sorry for the two foxes but are glad that they look to survive the loss of their parents.   On a much happier note I went to St.Stephen today to get our Florida-van registered and RIV-inspected. First stop was at Canadian (Crappy) Tire where an employee took care of all the papers and stamped them. Afterwards we went outside where he checked the VIN-number and all the weight figures.   It was all over after 20 minutes – pretty straight forward procedure and yet absolutely unnecessary as all this has already been done at customs. Next stop was at an auto glass shop where I wanted to get a small window on the passenger side of the van replaced. It was a plexi-glass window and the sun in Florida had pretty much destroyed the plexi to a blind piece of plastic. I couldn’t even see the outside mirror through it. They suggested to replace the plexi with a piece of real auto glass. So “Tom” started by removing an inside cover underneath the window. Next thing he pulled out was a steel base and finally the piece of plexi came out. It was about 10x18 inch. A piece of auto glass was found and placed on a table. Tom followed a procedure I have never seen before. After a glass cutter was used on both sides the area was sprayed with a liquid which Tom ignited with a lighter. I saw a flame creep along the cut and before I knew it Tom had the cut-off in his hand. After all the cuts were made he went to a band sander and sanded the edges and the round top. Back at the van he then inserted the new window glass from beneath – and made a face. The piece didn’t fit. What neither Tom nor anybody else had realized was that the glass was curved. The straight piece simply wouldn’t fit in. Tom went to his boss and a decision was made to use Lexan – plexi instead of auto glass.  Lexan is UV stabilized and has a certain flexibility to follow a curved profile. This time the piece was cut out with a jigsaw. Another careful sanding of the edges followed and after another 30 minutes I had a new clear window on the passenger side. Taking out the old pane Tom had discovered some rust on the metal frame of the glass. He scraped off loose rust and applied a rust converting primer. I was impressed how professional this guy went about his work but was curious about how much i would have to pay for all this. By this time I had been traipsing around the shop for close to 2 hours. When it was time to pay the bill it was just $124 bucks for the material and one hour of labour. Not a bad deal at all. But I had 2 other errands on my list. First I needed the New Brunswick license plates from “Service New Brunswick”.  Normally this office is so busy that one has to calculate a lot of waiting time. Not so today. It was almost empty and I didn’t even got my butt into a chair when my number appeared on the screen. I dumped all the papers and stamped forms on her counter and 400 Dollars later I had my registration and license plates. The 400 Dollars are also containing 8% provincial sales tax which New Brunswick is asking for EVERY time a vehicle is changing ownership. I had previously paid the federal part 5% GST (Goods and service tax) at the time of importation.   From Florida……………………………………………to New Brunswick Now I had only one more errand left. I was thinking of establishing a business bank account at the RBC, the Royal Bank of Canada.  After entering the bank I was standing around at the information counter, but the lady there seemed to be very busy with something else. There was no other customer around but nobody made any attempt to step up and ask how they could help me. Finally after about 5 minutes a lady came up from behind one of the teller counters to inquire about my business being there. I told her my errand and she asked whether I had an appointment which I had not. I replied by asking her whether that was needed, which she confirmed. Yet she went to the rear of the offices but came back with that professional “I’m sorry-look” in her face. Nobody was available to take on a new customer for establishing a business account. All I got was a business card with a number to call. Let me just say that I NEVER EVER will walk into that bank again. I’m certainly not spending another  three hours on the road to see an arrogant bank officer, If it is not possible to walk into a bank and get a bank account without a prior appointment they do not deserve to have customers at all. On my way out of town I had to wait more than 30 minutes to get across the border. The Americans have currently closed a 2 border crossing west of St.Stephen so more traffic is going across the bridge between St.Stephen and Calais. In fact, the traffic line-up went all the way through Water Street. It was slow going, but I finally got trough. For our American neighbours: EU=French for Etat Unis      Our Head Harbour Lightstation is welcoming visitors to New Brunswick     Thanks for visiting!